[Orlando, Fla.] Roughly 550 distributors and manufacturers attended the joint North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors (NAFCD)/North American Building Material Distribution Association (NBMDA) convention, held here, Nov. 14. It’s the third consecutive year both distribution associations combined their annual convention.

In addition to scaling back large exhibition spaces in favor of more intimate settings for distributors and suppliers to interact, the NAFCD announced it has entered into a cross-member partnership with the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA).

“The members of NAFCD can now go to NWFA for the same price as their members and in return, NWFA members can come to our conference at member prices,” said immediate past NAFCD president David Williams. “There are lots of opportunities for training and education by working together. We’re looking for associations that are likeminded where we can do that. There’s strength in numbers.”

Bill Simonson, vice president of operations at Jaeckle Wholesale, which ranked No. 24 on FCW’s list of Top 25 Distributors, was presented a Leadership in Action Award during the convention’s opening general session. Ken Herriges, CEO of Herregan Distributors (No. 12); Mort Creech, chairman of J.J. Haines (No. 1); and Ben Hagood, chairman of William M. Bird (No. 4) were each awarded NAFCD’s first Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Guest speaker and sales guru Jim Pancero pointed out that the growing acceptance of International Organization for Standards (ISO) has diminished the effectiveness of claiming superior quality when making sales calls. “Quality programs like ISO have improved everyone across the board,” said Pancero.

“It’s not so easy to just say you have better quality. Today, it’s not about the product. It’s about the organization behind the product.”

Pancero added that to grow market share today organizations have to provide more than “assumed” or “expected” levels of service and “impress” and “amaze” customers.

Distributors and manufacturers later paired up for a roundtable discussion to address the decreased levels of communication and trust that arose between the two groups during the economic downturn.

“My trust of suppliers went to zero,” said one Midwest distributor. “You think someone is in your corner and then you see they cut a deal with someone else. I got mistreated by one supplier and the mistrust transferred over to all suppliers.”

Brian Kelley, national sales manager at Bostik, said the downturn was unprecedented and resulted in desperate measures across the entire industry.

“Everyone was freaking out like we were on the Titanic,” he said. “You started out thinking about how many people you could save and then you had to save yourself. You had to jump in the boat.”

Across the board, distributors and manufacturers said the worst is behind them.

“We made the cuts we had to make and now those salaries have been restored,” said Nick Melnyk, vice president of Cain & Bultman. “We’ve turned the corner. We now have profit sharing for our 401(k) for the first time in two years.”

Distributors and manufacturers joined together to repair relationships hampered by the downturn.